BEAUTY IN OUR TIME

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21183, 2 November 1938, Page 10

BEAUTY IN OUR TIME

DECORATIVE CEILINGS RETURN There are several examples among recently-completed interiors which suggest that the ceiling is coming back into its own as an object of decoration, states Baseden Butt in the London “Daily Telegraph.” It Is no longer treated always as a plain covering or lid, and is again being given the distinction of a work of art. In the later eighteenth century the supreme artist in the design of decorative ceilings was the architect Robert Adam. His ceilings in modelled plaster work, with their delicate use of exquisitely-wrought medallions and festoons, had a rythmic precision that suggested music. They were in perfect harmony with the interior as a whole. Similarly, the ornate coffered ceilings of the Georgian and William and Mary periods, and earlier, were often marvels of artist-craftmanship. A similar beauty in ceiling treatments is possible for our own times, but on lines that are of the present day. A ceiling which has been painted by Henry Rushbury, R. A., for the draw-ing-room of a house in Bayswater, provides an example of the new fashion. Four Points of the Compass In the centre are the four points of the compass, and beyond the compass points the signs of the Zodiac are shown in the sequence of their months, while in the corners are designs of fruits and flowers to symbolise the four seasons. These designs are a rich and diversified symphony of colour, the bed of the ceiling being a delicate blue and grey-blue. For smaller interiors the modern ceiling papers in very light and delicate colours and subdued patterns have practical as well as decorative advantages. They add colour and interest to the ensemble, and at the same time they may serve to hide cracks in the ceiling where these are appearing, and by serving as a support they also prevent these cracks from spreading. The best colours for a decorated celling are the lighter shades of blue and yellow; and for bedrooms there are possibilities in peach and apricot. Green, like grey, is hardly so suitable and is liable to look oppressive. With the return of decorative ceilings one notices a return of mouldings, these, although they run round the summit of the walls, are an accessory

not of the walls but of the ceiling. They are meant to form a frame and become rational when the ceiling is worth framing. Ceiling mouldings need not be dusttraps. They can be designed with all their surfaces either perpendicular or horizontal, but facing downwards.